1972–73 Indiana Pacers season
The 1972–73 Indiana Pacers season was the franchise's sixth season both as a team and in the American Basketball Association. The Pacers entered the season looking to repeat as champions of the ABA, as well as win a record-high third ABA championship in four years after previously winning the ABA Finals in 1970 and 1972. Indiana finished the season by being second place in the Western Division with a 51–31 record, finishing behind only the Utah Stars by four games, before winning their third ABA title in seven games. In a rematch of the 1972 Western Division Semifinals, the Pacers eliminated the Denver Rockets 4–1 this time around after going to seven games with them the last time they met. After defeating the Rockets in five games, the Pacers eliminated the Utah Stars in their 1972 Western Division Finals rematch in six games after previously beating them in seven games last year. The Eastern Division champion Kentucky Colonels appeared in the ABA Championships for the second time in franchise history ; while the Colonels would fight tooth and nail with the Pacers, Indiana would ultimately prevail in seven games against their nearby rivals in Kentucky, becoming the only ABA team to ever repeat as champions while the ABA existed as a league.
This is the last ABA season where the Pacers won the championship, and as of 2025, this is the last season the Pacers won a championship of any kind in either the ABA or NBA, though 2025 was also the closest year they would get to being champions again through the 2025 NBA Finals.
Offseason
ABA Draft
Weirdly enough, as of 2025, there has been no official draft records for the first five rounds of the 1972 ABA draft specifically, while every other round after that point has been properly recorded by basketball historians otherwise. Because of the strange dispersity of draft picks not being properly recorded this year after previously being fully recorded in the previous year's draft and the number of rounds potentially being off for even the players being selected this year, the recorded players selected in this year's draft will be marked with a ? for the pick number in particular in order to showcase the awkward display currently going on with the 1972 ABA draft year in particular. However, if any changes come up to where a proper, official recording of the 1972 ABA draft gets released displaying both pick numbers and round numbers for where certain players got selected, please provide the updated draft ordering with a source confirming the round and pick numbers included here.| Round | Pick | Player | Position | Nationality | College | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3 | 24 | Oscar Evans | G |  Dispersal DraftMonths after the original ABA draft for this year concluded, the ABA held their first ever dispersal draft on July 13, 1972, after it was found out by the ABA itself that neither "The Floridians" nor the Pittsburgh Condors would be able to continue operations either in their original locations or elsewhere in the U.S.A.. Unlike the main draft they did during the months of March and April, this draft would last for only six rounds as a one-day deal and would have the nine remaining inaugural ABA teams selecting players that were left over at the time from both "The Floridians" and Pittsburgh Condors franchises and obtain their player rights from there. Any players from either franchise that wouldn't be selected during this draft would be placed on waivers and enter free agency afterward. Interestingly, only 42 total players were selected by the nine remaining ABA teams at the time of the dispersal draft, meaning everyone else that was available from both teams was considered a free agent to the ABA not long afterward. The Pacers would also be the last team to select players from this particular draft since they were back-to-back ABA champions. The following players were either Floridians or Condors players that the Pacers acquired during this dispersal draft.
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